Jul 22, 2013

I love this soup, and this is the perfect time of year to make it with summer corn at it's sweetest! The temperatures we were having last week were in the high nineties and soup was the last thing on my mind. But finally we are back in the eighties, and a bowl of soup is always comforting to me.

Inspired from a Colombian soup called Crema De Mazorca from the Andean region of Colombia, this soup is sweet and creamy, made with fresh summer corn. I didn't use any cream, instead it's simmered in low fat milk and thickened with a potato, once pureed it's thick and velvety. Then I finished it with some crumbled queso fresco and fresh cilantro with gives it that sweet-savory finish that we love in my home!

If you can't find queso fresco in your area, try another salty cheese like cotija, ricotta salata or a mild feta.

Sure, you could probably make this from frozen corn, but I don't think it would taste nearly as good so for best results, make this with fresh corn while it's in season. This is a great meatless soup, perfect for vegetarians and it also happens to be gluten free!

Heat a medium heavy pot or Dutch oven on medium heat. Add oil and sauté scallions and garlic for 1 minute. Add the corn, potatoes, milk, bouillon, and 1 tablespoon of cilantro in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for approximately 30 to 35 minutes or until the corn is tender, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and reserve 6 tablespoons of the corn kernels for topping. Add sour cream to the soup and purée in the blender in two batches, careful not to burn yourself; return to the pot.

a hint for cutting corn off the cob. Place a small bowl upside down inside a larger bowl or pot. Place the corn cob end on the overturned bowl. Cut off the corn and it will fall into the bowl and not get all over your counter. When you are finished all of the cobs, remove the small bowl and you have a bowl full of fresh corn kernels that you can divide for this recipe and others or freeze as needed for recipes this fall or winter when fresh, in season, and cheap corn on the cob isn't available.

Queso fresco sounds like (I had to wiki it) the cheese my mom's family brings for us from Honduras :). They just call it queso (cheese) though but I wonder if I can find 'queso fresco' in our local supermarket and find out if its the same thing or something very similar.

My husband is allergic to potatoes (worst allergy EVERY!), and I did not know if there was something I could substitute for the potatoes so we could still enjoy this soup. I did not know how well cauliflower might stand up in it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I recently got 5 dozen ears of the sweetest, most delicious non GMO, organic sweet corn. This is sooooo happening! Going to be work lunch the rest of the week. I can honestly say that I am now excited for work tomorrow! =)

I love corn so I thought this would be a great idea! Turns out I don't love it so much in a liquid form. I tried toning it down with some turkey bacon. (tried to incorporate loaded potato soup in a way??) It helped but out of ALL of the AMAZING recipes you have this one (sadly) was probably my least favorite. but please keep bringing the diverse recipe ideas!!!

A great way to use all of the fresh corn at the farmer's market! The consistency (after puréeing in the Vitamix) was beautiful. For those of you who may be equally baffled by the omnipresent "salt to taste" instructions, you'll need a tablespoon of sea salt as a decent starting point. Corn needs salt, period, and one tablespoon spread out among six bowls is not bad at all. A second tip: be patient when it comes to serving this soup. I ate it right away because I was starving, and don't get me wrong, it was good, but not mind-blowing. Well, when I went to put away the leftovers over an hour later, I took another taste. Sweet sassy molassy, the stuff was TWICE as good! It just needed another hour to sit and let all the flavors blend. I will be keeping this recipe.

We made this last night for dinner was delicious! Fresh corn is definitely the way to go it was nice and sweet! We didn't need salt, I added a pinch just cause but otherwise didn't add anymore. We used almond milk since that's what we have in the house and it still came out good.t

I love all of Gina's recipes, but this was a tad bland. I did two things that helped - as weberash said letting it sit works wonders and it needs generous seasoning. For me plain salt wasn't enough. I happened to have a mix with garlic and onion powders, salt, pepper, and chives. I had to use a full tbsp. Next time I think I will cook a few strips of bacon, pour off most of the fat, sautee the scallions and garlic in the remaining and add the chopped bacon back in. If not going vegetarian it really doesn't add a ton of points over the whole chowder but would add a lot of flavor.

This was delicious! Although the comment suggesting starting with 1 tablespoon of salt was WAY off to me. I like foods that aren't salted that much, so maybe that's why, but I probably could have done with about 1/4 as much. I ended up adding a bunch more milk and it was still too salty to me. Not inedible or anything, just saltier than I would have liked.

I don't have veg bouillon, but do have veg stock. Can I use as a substitute, and if so do I cut back on the milk or add to it? Or, I saw on the internet a substitute for veg bouillion that sauteed onions and garlic and some spices. What do you think?

I made this delicious soup last night. I omitted the cilantro (I didn't have any on hand) and used sharp cheddar in place of queso fresco for the same reason. It is sooooo good. Creamy and so tasty. I added just a bit of salt and pepper and didn't think it was too bland. I think I enjoyed the taste of the fresh corn so much I wasn't thinking about seasoning!! I may saute shredded zucchini next time to bulk it up for very few calories. This is a winner...will make again.

Wow! I just made this tonight, and it was very good. The only thing that I did differently was add the salt to the corn and potatoes when they were cooking to give it some flavor! I will try this again before the end of the season! Thanks again Gina!

YUM! I love it now and am looking forward to see how the flavors develop overnight. I had 6 ears of organic corn in my CSA today and could not have found a better place for it than in this soup (ok, except for the one I ate raw standing over the sink). Might add a celery stalk for the simmer next time and take it out before pureeing (another great flavor add from your recipes). Only change - used 2% milk b/c it is what I usually keep in the fridge.

Very delicious! I think I might cut the milk down a bit to make it a little thicker and I'd love to add some shrimp or crab to get a little more protein in there. Definitely a keeper of a recipe to tinker with!

I just made this tonight and it was delicious!! I decided to leave about 1/4 of the soup out of the blender because I like some veggie chunks and it worked out well. I also added 2 chopped carrots for some added nutrition. I made a total mess cutting the corn off the cobs but the end result was worth it! Perfect soup to dip some crusty bread in.... I cant wait to eat leftovers all week!

This was sadly underwhelming for me... I felt like it didn't have a lot of flavor to it and it turns out that queso fresco is extremely bland (almost no taste at all). I'd probably do it with goat cheese next time, something to give it a stronger flavor. Most of the taste came from the salt and pepper. Very easy to make though.

Hey the soup was awesome. I would just reserve a little more corn kernels from the soup to make it more chunky. My grocery store didn't have the cheese you suggested. I put cheddar and it tasted great!

I was excited to try this because it's the season for Colorado Olathe Sweet Corn (yum!!!). I made it as instructed (except for the reserved corn, please consider putting that in the recipe to add all corn except for reserving 6 tbsp for garnish) and it was really good. It didn't blow me away but it was a good solid recipe that I would make again. Both of us thought that the Queso Fresco really didn't add anything to it so we'll probably leave it off next time. Something crunchy on the top would be good too but I'm not quite sure what. I'm loooking forward to trying it after it has had a chance to sit like mentioned in other posts.

Just made this for the first time. I didn't care for it as much just after I'd made it, but I placed leftovers in the fridge. I took some out a little while ago and out of curiosity tried it cold... BAM! That change in temperature just seemed to do it for me.

This came out delicious! Sweet and yummy! I used an immersion blender instead of dealing with the mess of pouring it into a blender, and it came out smooth and tasty. I recommend doing it this way-- and there's less chance of burning yourself on hot soup.